The schools where they never say ‘sit still’
First Publication | Rick Maese | Washington Post | 21 November 2015 Republication | the guardian
Abstract | The educational model is broken, Spurlock says, and the key to fixing it is applying some of the most basic principles of sport and exercise. Students in some Charleston area schools sit on desks that double as exercise equipment, they enrol in “advanced PE”, receive regular yoga instruction and visit specially equipped learning labs each week where the line between education and physical education disappears entirely.
“If you went to anybody who’s in education, you say PE versus instruction, they say instruction every time,” he says. “But what we’re trying to show is that more movement equals better grades, better behaviour, better bodies.”
Abstract | The US Department of Health and Human Services recommends that children engage in at least one hour of physical activity each day. The American College of Sports Medicine, on its annual report card on physical activity by US children last year, issued a D-minus, finding that just a quarter of children aged between six and 15 were active for 60 minutes a day. As electronics become more pervasive, youth sports participation also has fallen nearly 10% since 2009, according to the Sports and Industry Fitness Association.
